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Non-invasive monitoring of blood glucose using optical methods for skin spectroscopy—opportunities and recent advances

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Abstract

Diabetes mellitus is a widespread disease with greatly rising patient numbers expected in the future, not only for industrialized countries but also for regions in the developing world. There is a need for efficient therapy, which can be via self-monitoring of blood glucose levels to provide tight glycemic control for reducing the risks of severe health complications. Advancements in diabetes technology can nowadays offer different sensor approaches, even for continuous blood glucose monitoring. Non-invasive blood glucose assays have been promised for many years and various vibrational spectroscopy-based methods of the skin are candidates for achieving this goal. Due to the small spectral signatures of the glucose hidden among a largely variable background, the largest signal-to-noise ratios and multivariate calibration are essential to provide the method applicability for self-monitoring of blood glucose. Besides multiparameter approaches, recently presented devices based on photoplethysmography with wavelengths in the visible and near-infrared range are evaluated for their potential of providing reliable blood glucose concentration predictions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Interdisciplinary Center for Life Sciences, South-Westphalia University of Applied Sciences, Frauenstuhlweg 31, 58644, Iserlohn, Germany

    Sven Delbeck & H. Michael Heise

  2. Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM), Acoustic and Electromagnetic Methods, Unter den Eichen 87, 12205, Berlin, Germany

    Thorsten Vahlsing

  3. Chair for Medical Information Technology, Helmholtz Institute of Biomedical Engineering, RWTH Aachen University, Pauwelsstr. 20, 52074, Aachen, Germany

    Thorsten Vahlsing & Steffen Leonhardt

  4. Faculty of Medicine Carl Gustav Carus, Clinical Sensoring and Monitoring, Technical University of Dresden, Fetscherstraße 74, 01307, Dresden, Germany

    Gerald Steiner

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  1. Sven Delbeck
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  4. Gerald Steiner
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Correspondence to H. Michael Heise.

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Delbeck, S., Vahlsing, T., Leonhardt, S. et al. Non-invasive monitoring of blood glucose using optical methods for skin spectroscopy—opportunities and recent advances. Anal Bioanal Chem 411, 63–77 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-018-1395-x

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